https://doi.org/10.31261/ZDP.2020.20.16
The idea of communism contained the promise that we simply needed to abolish private property, make the state the entity that manages the means of production in a centralised manner, and the death of the state would automatically follow. Yet, already the 19th century, the anarchists, especially Mikhail A. Bakunin, warned that the attempt to implement this project must end in all-encompassing despotism. However, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels remained committed to their communist ideals throughout their whole life, because the semi-religious uto- pian fantasies prevailed in them over the strenuous efforts of researchers trying to understand human history. In such a situation, the founders of Marxism would unknowingly articulate the ideological justification for the interests of a caste of professional revolutionaries, the future rul- ers of the communist utopia, in this way contributing to the establishment of a new ruling class in the socialist state.
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Vol. 13 (2020)
Published: 2021-08-11